Erdoğan calls for int'l move to end 'Syria drama'

LJUBLJANA - Anatolia News Agency

Slovenian Prime minister Janez Jansa (2ndR) and Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan review the honour guard in Ljubljana on May 7, 2012. Erdogan pays a one day visit to Slovenia. AFP PHOTO/Rene Gomolj

The ongoing problems in Syria have to be brought to an end with the cooperation of international powers, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said yesterday during a visit to the Slovenian capital, Ljubljana.

“It is an international issue to stop the humanitarian drama and killings in Syria. We have to stop this problem by treating it as a humanitarian problem in cooperation with the United Nations Security Council, the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation,” Erdoğan said, speaking at a joint press conference with his Slovenian counterpart Janez Jansa. He said Turkey and Slovenia share the same stance on the problems in Syria.

Regime has come to an end

Erdoğan said there are currently 23,000 Syrians staying in Turkey, having made a visit on May 6 to Syrian migrants staying in southern Turkey near the Syria border, and they are welcome to remain there until they feel safe to return their own country. “We have promised them that they are our guests here as long as they feel secure,” Erdoğan said.

Erdoğan said Bashar al-Assad’s regime has come to an end, and that “10,000 [Syrian] people have been killed, 25,000 people are in Turkey and 100,000 others are in Lebanon,” speaking to the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera one day ago. He also criticized al-Assad for not “honoring the friendship of Turkey” by not responding to Ankara’s calls to stop the violence. “We have been very patient with Syria issue so far.

But if the Syrian government continues to make the same mistakes on the border [with Turkey], then this will be a problem under NATO’s Chapter 5,” Erdoğan told the Corriere della Sera. “I am ready to ask NATO for a military intervention in Syria,” the daily quoted Erdoğan as saying.